The first officer’s “inappropriate response” to the inadvertent activation of the Boeing 767’s go-around mode triggered a chain of events that resulted in the Feb. 23, 2019, crash of Atlas Air Flight 3591 in Trinity Bay, Texas, U.S., the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says.
The captain, the first officer (FO) and a non-revenue pilot in the jump seat, were killed in the crash, which destroyed the airplane.
The NTSB cited the FO’s response as the probable cause of the accident; that response led to his spatial disorientation and nose-down control inputs “that placed the airplane in a steep descent from which the crew did not recover.”
Among the factors contributing to the accident, the NTSB said, were systemic deficiencies in the aviation industry’s pilot selection and performance measurement processes, which failed to address the first officer’s “aptitude-related deficiencies and maladaptive stress response,” and the U.S. Federal Aviation Admin…
